Tuesday, April 24, 2012

There is a way to get
Southern Nevada more water without devastating the Rural Nevada
environment and leaving present Las Vegans indebted for
life for water not even for them.

But first; allow me to
point out that the Southern Nevada Water Authority's (SNWA's)
watergrab of Rural Nevada water is a terrible idea. It's a Ponzi scheme. Though SNWA
won't admit to it any longer, the real reason for wanting more water
is to sustain unsustainable growth – most of it not even in Las
Vegas. SNWA has put short-term developer and investor profits over
the sustainable future of Nevada.

Unfortunately, water
efficiency and recycling aren't enough for them. They're committed to
getting more water – and we have to deal with that.

So, here's how we get them
more water:

Give them the irradiated
water off the Nevada Nuclear Test Site... No, not really. But when
you think about it; if that water had not been irradiated, that's
where Southern Nevada would have been going for more water. They
wouldn't be paying billions extra to leapfrog the Test Site. They
shouldn't have to.

The Federal Government
owes Nevada for the water they irradiated.

Over 60 years ago; the
U.S. Federal Government decided, without input from Nevada, to blow
up nuclear weapons on Nevada soil. Over the years, billions of
gallons of Nevada groundwater was contaminated. In conscious
decisions that were made by U.S. leaders, Nevada water was determined
to be acceptable collateral loss. And now we need it.

The U.S. owes Nevada for
the water they irradiated. This ought to be a sure thing in civil
court. But we don't want the money. We want the water.

Now, before anybody starts
asking for Federal money for the watergrab, remember; if the U.S.
were to pay for the SNWA watergrab pipeline network, it wouldn't
really mean more water for Nevada. The watergrab just takes water
from another part of the State.

What Nevada needs is more
water. The only way to get that is with desalination.
Because that is the only way the world is going to get
more fresh water.

And how do we get that
water from the coast to Southern Nevada? We don't. All we have to do
is trade the desalinated water for more water from the Colorado
River. The coastal cities of California will get more water – which
will free up more water for Colorado River dependent farmers (some Southern California farmers sell their water to the cities), and for
Southern Nevada. Win-Win-Win.

What should be done is;
the U.S. Government should commit to the technical development of
offshore desalination plants. Sooner or later, someone will
have to construct pilot desalination plants off the coast of
California. And if the government is involved, this can be done in a
way that helps all water users. By providing desalinated water to our
coastal communities, we can free up more water upstream on our
rivers. This means more water for everyone.

It only makes sense that
America plan ahead to make more fresh water for Americans.
Politically, it's definitely time. Almost the whole nation is in
drought.

The cost of desalination
has dropped drastically since Pat Mullroy pulled together SNWA from
competing water districts in Southern Nevada (with the obvious intent
of bullying Central Nevada).

What seemed like a good
idea 20 years ago is now the more expensive decision.

Besides, if they take the
water, it won't be there when they really need it.

SNWA could still do the
right thing. Now that they have the water rights to valleys hundreds
of miles away, all they have to do is nothing. By sitting on those
water rights, SNWA could save these valleys (and the adjacent
mountain ranges) beautiful natural high desert environment for
decades. Saving water for when we really need it is the wise thing to
do – and it's far less expensive.

For their immediate needs
(wants); there is a less expensive potential source than the
watergrab – and Las Vegans might even get major financial help
paying for it. The U.S. still owes Nevada water. Moreover, California
needs more water. And California has a lot of political clout.

If Nevada and California
got together in Congress – along with many other States now in
drought; we could pass legislation to develop offshore desalination
plants. These desalination plants would be tsunami resistant,
earthquake resistant, terrorism resistant, unaffected by sea level
rise, insignificant contributors of salt to the deep ocean, out of
the views of coastal communities, and if designed right; run off of
renewable energy such as solar, wind, and/or wave energy.

America needs more water.
The only way to practically get more fresh water is desalination. The
only way to practically desalinate is to do it offshore. And the only
way this will happen any time soon is if our nation pulls together
like on the development of the interstate highway system.

Offshore desalination is
inevitable. The only question is; will we decide to drain all our
groundwater first?

Humanity's most resilient
quality is that we can change our minds. And by changing our minds,
we change our actions. And by changing our actions, we change the
world. If we can figure out a better way, and follow that path; we
could create a better world for generations to come.

How did our ancestors gain
their wisdom? By observing their world. By learning from Nature.

The most amazingly complex
and successful systems we humans have ever witnessed are right before
our eyes – in the natural world. For example; the closest thing to
perpetual motion we will ever witness is commonplace in nature. Life
can go on almost indefinitely. And we are a part of that – even
more.

So, what can be learned
from these natural systems that so farsurpass
our own inventions and industry?

Cradle to cradle manufacturing/construction/agriculture is based upon
the observation that the most sustainable systems are cyclical. There
is no such thing as waste in nature. In fact, waste is food for a
different part of the cycle. Nature is far more efficient than most
anything our post-modern industrial civilization calls “systems.”
We can learn from that. Ecologically intelligent design is not beyond
our capabilities. Moreover; we can economically profit from
ecologically intelligent designs. In fact, in the long run, the
benefits of good design should be far greater than the short-term profits of wasteful industries.

Good design doesn't ignore
consequences. And there are lots of good ideas already out there. We can reduce waste, pollution,
oppression, and illness
by eliminating “externalities”
that the short-term greedy ignore.

There are already existing
factories that utilize ecologically intelligent design. There is a
textile manufacturer in Europe, that in the process of utilizing
water for manufacturing, cleans the water. The water coming out of
the factory is actually cleaner than the water going in. And this is just the beginning of the effort.

So, what do we want? The
answer is obvious... we want to eat our cake and still have it too.
We want abundance.
And of course; nature has found a way to maximize abundance. For
example; a pine nut tree grows far more seeds than it needs to
reproduce. A pine nut tree creates abundance. Yet there is no waste.
There is no pollution. We can learn abundant sustainability from
natural processes such as this.

Ironically, our present
economic system rewards scarcity (if supply drops, prices are
expected to rise). Consequently, those who wish to take advantage of
our economic system don't want abundance. They want scarcity, so they
can maximize their profits.

We hope to locally develop
sustainable systems of food production, water use, and waste recycling. Our
ancestors, living naturally, accomplished this for thousands of
years. And, with ecologically intelligently designed systems, we can
do an even better job now.

However, there are some
external threats to our food production and water use.

First, some Nevadans
want to eliminate pine nut trees from Nevada. Pine nut trees have
nourished our people so well for so long that there would literally
be no Newe people if there were no pine nut trees. Our ancestors
would have starved to death. To consider this source of abundant
free food a “phreatophyte” – a pestilence to be burned for biomass – to divert their water to less sustainable
non-native agriculture or highly polluting mining – is incredibly short-sighted.

To
best deal with this issue, all we have to do is nothing – live and
let live.

Second, the Nevada
Department of Wildlife (NDOW) has been issuing far more hunting tags than the herds of deer and elk can
support. Just in the past few years, the population of elk here in
White Pine County has dropped drastically. In those past few years,
it appears that NDOW has issued more tags than there are elk here!
At this rate, there won't be any more elk to “manage” in a few
years.

To
best deal with this, we need to isolate NDOW funding from hunting
tag sales.

Third, Southern
Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) wants to export massive amounts of
groundwater from our Native hunting lands. Water flows downhill,
even underground. If SNWA completes this theft of water, the valleys
will dry up. And then the foothills will dry up. And then the
mountains will dry up. And then everything will burn. And then we
will have nothing left to hunt.

To
best deal with this; we need to build offshore desalination plants
to provide more water for California in exchange for more water for
Nevada from the Colorado River. The Federal Government owes Nevada
for the water that was irradiated under the Nevada Nuclear Test
Site. We don't want money. We want water. The Federal Government
should help us build offshore desalination plants. This is how
Nevada can get what is owed to us – and not have to burden
Southern Nevada with billions in debt to pay to take water from the
other side of the Test Site.

The effect of these three
exploitative actions, considered together, systematically deny the
Native Newe people the capacity to develop sustainable systems of
food and water use. Taken together, these acts of free-for-all
pillage are grave threats to the long term existence of the Newe
people. Whatever the intent, effectively they are trying to take away our viability as a people.

Not that we are insisting
on going back to the old ways. It's just that some of the old ways worked – and we hope to continue them. Being
food and water locally self-sufficient just makes sense. This should be our responsibility. In fact; it
should be our right to live sustainably.

Nevada is one of the least
populated States in the Union. This makes us also vulnerable to more
populated States' oppression. The form of this oppression has been
the gradual pressure to make Nevada the dumping site for the Nation. A just society doesn't force its
toxic waste on its most vulnerable. It should be our right
to live free from the unwanted poisons of other States.

Not that we intend to be
isolationists. Interdependence with the people of the rest of the
world is crucial to solving our, and the world's problems.

For example;
Marker-Assisted Selection (MAS), also known as fast-track breeding,
or smart breeding is a far safer and more effective technology than Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). And because MAS is
simply scientifically monitored breeding there are no patent laws to enrich the monopolies (by keeping us dependent). MAS
technology can be used to adapt crops to our climate here. Possibly; we could even utilize this
MAS technology to develop foods from local plants that today do not
yield crops.

To learn about
game-changing technologies such as MAS, we need to be proficient at
finding useful information on the Internet. This means we need
training and access to the Internet. Education itself is
fundamentally changing. We are all now beginning to learn from each
other on the Internet. (And even more important, at least for while,
there exists the potential to get more honest information on the Internet than advertiser supported
media.) The Newe people need to be a part of that.

For example; it would be
beyond our capacity to build a car (or complex tool) out here in the high deserts. But we could
build a part for the car and trade it with other communities for other
parts until we have all of the parts for the car. Even out here in
rural areas, we have auto mechanics. But if building a car is too
difficult for them, we could trade parts for the car's construction
elsewhere.

With a somewhat advanced
local manufacturing facility, functioning much like a library, we
could share our tools (such as a computer controlled milling machine,
3D printer, 3D scanner, and possibly a solar furnace) to make parts for many items. By being more
interdependent, we can be more independent in ways that matter.

The same is true for
energy interdependence. Here in the high deserts, we have ideal
sunlight for photovoltaic energy generation. Eventually, we can locally source all of our
energy – and store it on cloudy days – or share with other communities on an
energy grid much like the Internet (a smart grid). This true
energy independence has been called the Third Industrial Revolution. Unfortunately, this may be what U.S. power
companies fear most; losing business by no longer selling power.
However, these power companies could morph into power traders,
monitoring everyone's profitable export of power to other
communities. (This would actually give Mt. Wheeler Power more to do –
and more to charge for.)

Locally sourced energy and
resources are key to our future success. And it can be done. Life
does it all the time. We need to mimic nature to make our tools.
Biomimicry can even help teach
us how to create a community like an ecosystem.

Of course; the most
important material we have to work with is ourselves. By learning
from nature and all of humanity, we can create a better world for
ourselves – and everyone. We need to train our people to be
mentally healthy and wise. At present, schools are forced to only
teach technical skills and jails are generally functioning as
warehouses.
Religious organizations have tried to teach right from wrong, but
apparently it isn't working. The evidence is obvious. The ratio of
Christian prisoners to the prison population is about the same as the ratio of Christians to the population outside.
Obviously, our people's mental health is falling through a crack in
our systems. Psychologist coaches can help us significantly (without
challenging anyone's religious beliefs). By training to face our
fears, learn from our mistakes, challenge our perceptions, live in
integrity, and love life and happiness so much we instinctively work to maximize our long term happiness; we will have the capacity to create a
better world.

But individual mental
health is not enough. To create a better world, functional
governments and economic systems are absolutely necessary.

As societies, we need to make the right decisions. We need to build resilience into our
political systems. What we have now is a State and National electoral
system of required
bribes. What we have now is legislation for sale. No politician,
by them self, can fix this. But we, the people, can. We have to. If
we don't, the abundance tactics mentioned in this document can just
be deemed illegal –
because the oligarchy says so. (This has happened in history.) Or even more likely; the oligarchy
enriching industries can just get more tax breaks and subsidies to
make it look like doing the right thing is too expensive.

Our political systems need
resilience.

One straightforward way to
achieve the will of the people is through direct democracy. We don't want to vote on every issue, but we should
vote on the most important issues. Individual representatives can be manipulated in a number of ways. It's much harder to
manipulate us all. We can achieve direct democracy at the Tribal level by
including five policy questions on the ballot when we have Tribal
Council elections. Each member of the Council can pick a question.
Results of the election can be used as a mandate for the Tribal
Council in the next term.

Until we achieve a true
democracy at every level of government and true wisdom about our economy, there are still a number of attributes we can bring to
our economic and political systems which would improve things
greatly. Those attributes can be summed up in an acronym; VICI
– Visibility, Integrity, Choice, Interests.

Visibility – the
people really need to know what's really going on. When we can see
the crimes, the excess, and the dysfunction; we can know something
needs to be done about it.

Integrity – price
integrity in the market is simply; the item is priced at it's actual
value. Tax breaks, subsidies, and free government favors (like
military interventions) can hide the true cost of a product.
Gasoline, for instance, would cost about three times as much if the true costs were represented. Without price
integrity, we get fooled into thinking that gas (and other
antiquated products) are cheaper than innovative new products.

Choice – monopolies
often control markets for their own unfair gain. When there is no
choice, there is no competition. When there is no competition, there
is no innovation. When there is no innovation, you get stuck buying
the same old crap you didn't like the last time – but the price
went up.

Interests –
societies work most productively when their peoples' interests are
aligned. Teamwork. But when someone (or everyone) finds a way to
cheat and get ahead, everyone's interests are no longer aligned. As
long as bad behavior gets rewarded better than behavior that helps
everyone, we have to expect bad behavior. We need to learn how to
better reward good behavior. (The first attribute, visibility, may
help with this.)

For example, when China
raised its tariffs and manipulated its currency; multinational and
American corporations manipulated U.S. Government to not retaliate to
what was essentially a trade war. The consequence is thirty years of
U.S. manufacturing jobs (and a whole lot of our wealth) moving to
China.

The only way of dealing
with organizations that are essentially above national laws is to
enforce world laws – based upon agreements of nation
states. This has been the goal of the United Nations and other world
organizations for quite some time. But, if nations such as the U.S.
are manipulated by multinational corporations to opt out, worldwide
agreements cannot be made.

At present, plants and
animals are more or less treated as property or pests. Even U.S.
extinction laws are now subject to the whim of Congress. In other words, whole species of life
are now at risk to the whims of corrupt politics. This is dangerously
irresponsible. The cocoon of life that supports us all deserves the
right to continue to support us all.

And moreover, future
generations of humans have no rights. These are our decedents. They
deserve rights. How would we feel if our ancestors didn't care
whether we made it or not?

Our Newe ancestors lived
self-sufficient and sustainable lives for thousands of years. We can build upon that knowledge and experience to create a future
even more resilient – even more abundant – even more
interdependent – even more independent.

The Functional
Fortress was designed to get everything we need from the Earth
and the Sky – to create your island of serenity.

Below
the Functional Fortress floors:

Temperatures
just a few feet below the surface of the Earth approach a constant 57
degrees F. A floor intimately connected thermally to subsurface Earth
will be cooler in the Summer and warmer during Winter. This physical
state has inspired people to build underground and earth-bermed
houses. They work great. But one does not have to bury
their home to (passively) heat and cool it from the thermal mass of
the Earth.

The Functional
Fortress was designed to inexpensively insulate a tunnel to
the temperatures of the depths. A mixture of perlite
and scoria is
buried in a 5 foot deep trench around the base of the building –
forming a thermal “moat.” Perlite is an excellent insulator and
scoria has many voids for the perlite to fill. Scoria is also
structurally sound. This mix is up to 3 feet thick, creating a tunnel
of thermal insulation isolating earth temps at the surface from earth
temps beneath the building. Therefore, in the Summer, heat will sink
into the floor. And in the Winter, heat will source from deep within
the Earth.

The Bombproof Adobe walls:

The walls of
the Functional Fortress perform more
functions than McMansion walls. The most important of these functions
is to last – up to hundreds of years... While of
course, being a desirable home for as long as the building lasts.
Adobe structures have lasted for up to 800 years – and when well
maintained, still look great. Moreover; when designed right, adobe is
downright practical.

One of the
primary features the Functional Fortress
walls have is that they store thermal energy. (Most stick built and
SIP homes miss out on this feature entirely.)

Actually, the
ideal wall should have two thermal skins; an external
skin to insulate, and an internal skin to store thermal energy. This
way, the temperature fluctuations from day to night can be dampened
inside the house while the temperature fluctuations outdoors can be
ignored. Of course; if you're going to store thermal energy, you need
thermal mass. Adobe is an excellent inexpensive candidate for thermal
mass material.

Adobe
construction has historically been very labor intensive. One had to
make all of the bricks before they could even get started on the
building. But that isn't necessary anymore.

Adobe doesn't
have to be made into bricks. Much labor can be saved by stuffing
adobe into sacks and allowing them to dry in place. This
“super-adobe” has shown itself
quite strong – and even more stable than traditional homes in
earthquakes. A recent design improvement; “hyper-adobe”
(see picture) utilizes open mesh tubes – which allows a better bond
between the “sacks” – which makes the adobe wall even stronger.
But even this design can be improved upon. Bombproof
Adobe walls are designed with two rows of 12 inch thick
hyper-adobe in steel
mesh tubes, reinforced with MgO
cement, steel rebar, and fiberglass
– on a conventional reinforced concrete foundation. This makes the
Functional Fortress adobe walls
literally bomb
force resistant (of course, the windows and doors won't be –
but that can be designed around).

Adobe is a
practical and adaptable building material. Mixed with MgO
cement, it is water resistant. It can even be modified, with
naturally occurring materials, to be used as an insulating layer.
Mixed with pumice or perlite,
12 inches of adobe can provide as much as R-30 insulation.

But what's
really special about adobe is that it's just hardened
dirt... you know; rock. It's not out of place in nature.

And, of course,
24 inches of rock can stop most bullets.

And, of course,
rock is fire resistant.

And by the way,
if it floods, there is no drywall or wood to get wet. Just mop the
Functional Fortress out, and you're
ready for the next flood.

The
Functional Fortress SIP roof:

The final
primary component of the integrated system is the roof. The ideal
roof is light and strong. (There isn't enough rainwater here in the
high deserts for turf on the roof.)

On a roof;
light, strong, and thermally insulating qualities are best
accomplished with materials that can be recycled. (Besides; massive
adobe roofs have a history of occasionally collapsing on their
inhabitants.)

Structurally,
the Functional Fortress roof is
designed to stand on its own. It could even be bolted together as a
shade, without walls. There are two reasons for this. First, if the
roof stands on its own, there are no structural requirements for the
adobe walls to meet to hold up the roof. Second, the steel vertical
I-beams will help strengthen the adobe walls.

Though
efficient, the Functional Fortress is
not a super-efficient home – by design. Homes need to breath,
because those who live in homes need to breath.

In Summer,
vents low on the North side of the house inhale cool shaded air –
and vents at the top of the roof exhale hot air.

In Winter,
a solar hot air collector heats outside air and vents it into the
house. The fresh air intake is at the bottom of the collector. As
the air heats, it rises, and pushes air into the house – with or
without a fan. On the other side of the house, the room temperature
air is vented to the outdoors – after it is ducted under the porch
to melt ice.

Of course, the
Functional Fortress is mounted with PV
solar modules to generate electric power for the homeowners.

And, of course,
the Functional Fortress is passively
solar heated. A row of windows on the South facing wall will bring in
sunlight and heat in the Winter. The South eave of the roof will
shade these windows in the Summer. On top of that, at the crest of
the roof is a row of windows facing Southward. Light from these upper
windows will heat the back wall. These upper windows are inset
beneath the North facing roof so that they too will be shaded by the
roof in the Summer.

Again, what
makes passive solar heating so special with the Functional
Fortress is the huge thermal mass in the interior walls. The
massive twelve inch thick adobe interior walls will store solar heat
all night – and in the summer, cool a building all day.

The roof
crest cooling vents:

The row of roof
mounted passive solar windows aren't just to let sunlight in. They
are designed to adapt to outside temperatures. In the Summer, there
are automatic vents just above the windows that open during the day
to vent out hot air.

In the Winter,
there are insulating panels that cover the insides of the windows at
night to keep warmth from escaping.

The windows
work together with ceiling fans to blow warm air out in the Summer –
or down towards inhabitants in the Winter.

Actively
controlled motorized vents and thermal barriers will significantly
increase the home's efficiency and reduce the need for human
oversight. However, the vents on the lower North walls will only
require passive controls.

The North
window/ cooling vents:

During the Summer, the
self-functioning automatic hinge (often used on greenhouses) on the
exterior vent is temperature sensitive to ventilate during the summer
days and close automatically at night. Therefore, the interior
windows can be left open all summer (with a bug screen).

In the winter, the lower
vents on the North side of the building can be completely closed off
by disconnecting the hinges (unscrewing an adjuster). And solid foam
insulation can be placed between the window and the vent. In this
configuration, the lower widows will function as a well insulated
part of the wall in winter.

This
window/vent design only requires one to set up the windows twice a
year – once in the Spring, once in the Fall.

With all of the
design innovations, one might be led to believe that the Functional
Fortress would look significantly different from homes one
might find on the market today. Not really.

The bags/tubes
that are filled with adobe can be made to look a lot like logs on a
log home. And if the builder wants to fill in the rounded shapes with
stucco, the walls will just look stuccoed.

The windows and
doors will have adobe arches above them (a necessary characteristic
of adobe construction).

But, from a
distance, if you didn't know the design; you wouldn't notice it
standing out.

When you would
notice the big difference of the Functional
Fortress would be when you enter the home. The walls are two
feet thick!

On the inside;
the look can be much like traditional adobe homes – or the
homeowner can create their own look.

There are
design constraints that limit the shapes of the Functional
Fortress. A builder cannot just throw one up in any shape or
oriented in any direction like most homes today. But when you think
about it; that's a sign. That is a sign that the design has been
optimized to get the most from the sun.

The Functional
Fortress has been optimized for sustainability, durability,
economy, and low maintenance comfort for the inhabitants. On the
other hand; McMansions are designed to maximize quick profits for the
builder.

About Me

I am Western Shoshone, native to Nevada. I have a degree in Electrical Engineering and ten years experience as a Systems Engineer. I am also the author of the book "lifehacking," available at amazon.com